In response to the 1 Feb ruling by the Court of Appeal in Oum El Bouaghi to uphold the conviction of trade unionist and human rights defender Ali Mammeri, and reduce his prison sentence from 15 to 10 years, Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International said:
The court’s deeply unjust decision to uphold Ali Mammeri’s conviction on baseless charges is another clear assault on peaceful dissent and independent union activity in Algeria.
Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International
“The court’s deeply unjust decision to uphold Ali Mammeri’s conviction on baseless charges is another clear assault on peaceful dissent and independent union activity in Algeria. Ali Mammeri’s 10-year prison sentence is deeply arbitrary and sends an alarming signal to other trade unionists in the country.
“The unfounded charges against him, of ‘glorification of terrorist acts’ and ‘dissemination of classified information’, are the result of nothing more than his union activism, including his union sharing information about workers’ rights with the International Labour Organization. The Algerian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Ali Mammeri and quash his conviction.
“Using torture-tainted statements to support a conviction is a grave violation of his right to a fair trial. It is also imperative that the authorities promptly open an independent, impartial, and effective investigation into Ali Mammeri’s allegations of being beaten, stripped naked, and forced to ‘confess’ during interrogation by police.”
Background
Ali Mammeri is a civil servant, human rights defender, and the president and founder of the independent National Union of Civil Servants in the Field of Culture and Arts (SNFC), affiliated with the Trade Union Confederation of Productive Forces (COSYFOP).
In March 2025, he was arrested without a warrant and held in incommunicado detention for four days, while his family and lawyers were denied information about his fate and whereabouts, subjecting him to enforced disappearance. During his interrogation, he reported being repeatedly beaten and stripped naked to force a “confession.” His family’s attempts to file a formal complaint for torture have so far been ignored by the authorities. On 29 October 2025, the Criminal Court of First Instance of Oum El Bouaghi sentenced Ali Mammeri to 15 years in prison.
The charges against him rely on the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation and legislation regarding the “protection of administrative documents.” He was convicted on the basis of his private and professional communications and Facebook posts about other detained activists; activities protected under international human rights law. Algerian authorities have been using such overly broad counter-terrorism legislation to unduly restrict civic space and criminalize legitimate trade union activity.
